What Cuts Will Cost: Children's Learning, Parents' Work

Andrea Anthony, the executive director of the Day Care Council of New York, an umbrella group for day care centers, is part of a coalition of providers, parents and advocates who are fighting planned cuts to subsidized daycare. The city says its hand has been forced by rising program costs and declining state and federal support.

Plans by the Administration for Children's Services to slash almost one third of city-subsidized child-care seats are being slammed by child-care advocates and politicians citywide, amid concerns that it may leave affected kids at an academic disadvantage and parents without jobs.

Since February, when the mayor issued his preliminary budget, the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) has been busy notifying over 11,000 parents of their plans to scale back a program that has allowed them to work or remain in agency-approved training while the city paid someone else to watch their kids.

As a consequence, over 16,000 children will be cut off by September, mostly from low-income families receiving ACS-contracted daycare or vouchers funding after-school programs.

Parents have until then to find alternative arrangements for their children, ACS spokeswoman Elysia Carnavale-Murphy says.

Under the sweeping plan, an estimated 600 teachers and teacher-aides will also be laid off, as at least 197 classrooms shut down.

Sixteen daycare centers are also facing the chopping block or have been axed in recent months, according to Arlene Cauley, director of the Sheldon Weaver Day Care Center in Far Rockaway, Queens.

Carnavale-Murphy denies that any centers will be forced to shut because of the cuts proposed in February. But, she adds in a statement to City Limits, “there are several programs that are scheduled to close by June of this year as a result of a budget reduction initiative proposed in last year's budget process.”

City cites higher costs

Carnavale-Murphy says that sharp reductions in state and federal aid in recent years, as well as increasing costs at participating centers, were driving the childcare agency to make difficult decisions.

The coming fiscal year will see a $29 million decrease in federal stimulus funds, she says. Increasing insurance costs for unionized teachers and more children entering the system were also factors in the agency's decision.

“The city must take action to address the more than $90 million budget shortfall caused by rising costs as state and federal resources have not kept pace. We are dealing with this by ensuring that our limited resources are used to support the families who need it the most,” she adds.

In the interim, the agency will be helping families affected to find alternative programs, she says, including the federal Head Start or the city's Out-of-School Time.

However, that plan has many childcare advocates and families fuming. Gregory Brender, a policy analyst at United Neighborhood Houses, warns that neither program holds out much promise of an affordable alternative come September.

“Head Start has strict income guidelines.

Support local investigative journalism.

City Limits does local, investigative reporting, publishes critical public information, and elevates community voices that would otherwise be unheard.

Since 1976, and at this critical moment, our uniquely deep coverage of neighborhoods across the five boroughs empowers citizens and informs democracy in New York City. As an independent nonprofit, our members make our reporting possible. Together we help create a fairer, better city for all.

There's a Neighborhood Advisory Council in each of the four boroughs where the de Blasio administration plans to build a new jail facility to facilitate the closing of Rikers Island. Here's what we know about their membership.

The judge—who seemed to signal solidarity with the jogger's family, is related to two assistant DAs and sided with the prosecution on key rulings in the Chanel Lewis trial—has had at least 42 cases reversed or modified by the appellate division since 2004.

New York City has a high-quality childcare program called EarlyLearn. New York City has a large population of working families with young children in its homeless shelters. Why is it so hard to connect the two?

The Job Board

Voice of the Reader

“Then how did Chanel Lewis' DNA get under Karina's fingernails? Lewis is a cold-blooded killer. The jury had to packed…”

Search our site

City Limits uses investigative journalism
through the prism of New York City
to identify urban problems,
examine their causes, explore solutions,
and equip communities to take action.

Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.